rooper continued,
emphasising his words by raising a clenched fist and striking the board
a blow.

The chip-piles toppled. He turned to those about, gesticulating. A few
surrounded him, evidently bent on leading him toward the door. Others
appeared to be continuing the dispute with Matthews. But as the
disturber was pushed out, they gradually subsided.

"I've got an idea," announced the storekeeper. And he disappeared around
a corner.

When he returned he was leading the trooper and talking low to him. All
three retired to the shadow of the wall.

Here there was a colloquy. First, Lounsbury held forth; next, the
trooper, protestingly. When the lieutenant broke in, two phrases were
frequently repeated--"to the guard-house," and "won't if you will."

At last the three went back to the window.

"Remember," cautioned the storekeeper, "we don't want all these shebangs
stirred up."

"Needn't worry," said Fraser. "Just listen to that rumpus down street."

The disjointed music of a wheezy accordion was rending the night. With
it sounded the regular stamp of feet.

Now, the trooper rounded the corner. A moment and, through the window,
Lounsbury and the officer saw him enter the door.

He slipped down to a seat beside Old Michael. There he stayed for a
while. Whenever a brother trooper looked his way, he called him up by
the crooking of a finger and whispered to him. Before long a knot of men
had again surrounded him. But this time their attention was all for the
table at the rear of the room.

There the game was going on. Matthews' chip-pile showed where the
winnings were gravitating. In the dim light there was a strained look on
the faces of the players.

Deal after deal passed. Finally, one of the five, having no more disks
before him, pushed back his chair and got up.

As he stood, dazed and dismayed, the trooper who had been ejected
appeared at his side, clapped him upon the back and spoke. At their
elbows was the knot that had gathered at the stove.

The next moment the trooper turned to the table and snatched the pack of
cards from Matthews' hand. He held up one, pointing at its back; snapped
it down; pointed at a second, then scattered the pack in the air.

Lounsbury and Fraser whipped round the corner and in through the door.

An uproar greeted them--"Cheat!" "Clean him out!"

"Do him like Soggy did!" Before them was a jostle of blue backs. Across
these, on the farther side of the plank bar, they saw